During a recent interview with Wrestling Inc, Crowbar commented on his recent debut on AEW Dark: Elevation, the backstage atmosphere in AEW, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the locker room atmosphere in AEW: “From independent shows to ECW to WCW to WWE, it’s a very important scenario, and social situations have always traditionally been very awkward for me as a person, for Chris Ford. I go in there, and there’s some people that I know. All the situations where guys are having conversation that seemed like important conversations, but overall, this locker room was by far the most welcoming, most relaxed, most easygoing I’ve ever been a part of. I introduced myself to a lot of people. A lot of people introduced themselves to me.
“They were familiar with my work as Crowbar and as Devon Storm going way, way back. It was a very welcoming locker room for me right now, but I think back, it would have especially been a super welcoming locker room for 17-18 year old Chris Ford way back when. Just a fantastic vibe, fantastic atmosphere. I like to say I have a foot in the old school and in the new school that being I was brought up and trained old-school style. I have a lot of the old school values, but I’m not old school wrestling culture wise. When I would be a part of the independents, ECW, WCW, I was never the kind of guy that would go out and tear things up and be a complete nut. I go out once a while. I would have a meal, have some beers, and that was it but not that often. I was probably the first guy to bring my video game system on the road. I was probably the first guy to bring schoolbooks on the road.”
On his interaction with Tony Khan backstage: “He was rushed around quite a bit. The night of the show, that’s a really big night. I got to say hi. I thanked him for having me. He thanked me for coming there, and that was pretty much the extent of it. It was pretty cool. We got most of our match directions through Joey, and me and Joey being very familiar with each other, we were able to kind of throw our heads together and and get the match done.”
On his suplex chair move: “That move has gotten such a great reaction and such awesome feedback. I’ve been doing that move for probably 20 years. Astonished it hasn’t been ripped off yet. Probably the first main show I did it on was in the steel cage for a WWWA against a Sabu, and I’ve used it regularly since then on independent shows here and there, but it’s never really been on a big major show like that. So for 20 years it’s been mine. I’m sure somebody is gonna rip it off now but be safe, have fun with it.”
On Blue Meanie appearing during the match: “I love Brian, great guy. We’ve known each other for so many years. We’ve never worked with each other, I don’t think, in any capacity. We looked at it. If it’s a one-off, great, but if not, there’s something weird there that kind of works. Maybe the two guys that are complete opposites. My character that I do in the promos being very serious and deadpan humor and then you have The Meanie that’s completely nuts. I don’t know, something there works maybe. Who the hell knows? I’d love to do it (work on the indies with The Blue Meanie).”
On what move got the biggest reaction backstage: “They said, ‘That thing with the chair you did, I’ve never seen that,’ and my reaction was, ‘I’ve been doing that for 20 years just totally under the radar.’ It was a fun match. Everybody seemed to like it. There was a lot of action. The show was going over when they were taping, so we had more of a structured story to get to the finish.
“They really wanted us to end the match. It was a kind of abrupt Death Valley Driver. We did have more of a story there, so maybe one day, but we’ll see. But overall, the reaction was good. It’s very flattering the comments that I get. ‘How do you still do this? How do you still move like this?’ I’m 47 years old, so hearing that kind of stuff is great, and I attribute a lot of that to — we all get injuries over the years and just having a physical therapy background. I’m a physical therapist for 23 years of those 30 years.”